Food giant Almarai named top brand in Saudi Arabia

Household name Almarai has been ranked the most positively perceived brand in Saudi Arabia, according to the 2015 BestBrand Rankings launched by global market research company YouGov.

The food and beverage giant has climbed five places since the end of 2014 to take the Buzz crown from Samsung.

Almarai notably won consumer attention last summer with the launch of its Ramadan wellness campaign which had a record 9 million views on YouTube.

After a three year reign at the top, Samsung now sits in second place followed by Apple, a non-mover in third.

Al Baik gained a place on last year and now settles in fourth. WhatsApp and iPhone won sufficient share of voice to make their debut in fifth and sixth place respectively, pushing Visa down three places to seventh.

Reports of a 60 percent year-on-year increase in the number of hours spent watching its videos, together with a re-designed mobile app, sees YouTube enter in eighth place, making it the only brand to debut in the top 10 in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt simultaneously, demonstrating consumers' increased engagement with video across the Arab world.

Google fell seven places to ninth place while Galaxy secured the 10th position, slipping three places since this time last year.

The BestBrand Rankings tracks over 400 brands in Saudi Arabia, and is a daily measure of brand perception among the public in the kingdom.

Kailash Nagdev, managing director for YouGov in the MENA region said: "It's interesting to note that Almarai broke engagement records on all of its social media platforms in 2015 with its wellness campaign during Ramadan and it is now the most positively perceived brand in the kingdom.

"The rankings clearly demonstrate the ability of digital brands to positively engage consumers, but the brands that are effectively utilising those digital platforms are also gaining high levels of positive buzz. 2016 could be the year of innovative campaigns as more brands look to engage customers with social media."